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ABOUT me
Growing up in a family of educators, my father a university
professor of statistics and my mother a high school chemistry
teacher, I was exposed to various formal and informal education
discussions from early on. My
goal was to become a computer’s engineer.Following graduation, I worked in industry as a software engineer, developing GUI for interactive TV applications, and two years later I enrolled in a MSc interdisciplinary program entitled "Advanced Systems in Digital Communication" while shifting my employment to teaching computer science and technology classes at the middle and high school level.At this point I was also expanding my teaching responsibilities by becoming an instructor at the department of Electrical and Computers Engineering at the University of Thessaly in central Greece, teaching a series of courses entitled “Instructional Methods for Computer Science”. Through teaching these college courses, my research interests were shifting even more in the direction of human learning, developmentally appropriate content, and student oriented teaching methods, keeping always in mind that all these had to be designed within the optimum aesthetics and functionality frameworks.
In 2005, Purdue University created a first ever graduate program in engineering education, and I knew this presented an opportunity I had been looking for. It could allow me to combine my computer engineering background and my interest in teaching and learning, and bring it to bear in a research context.
While until recently efforts concentrated on reforming engineering education at the college level, it has became apparent that engineering education as discipline must also be concerned with what happens before that point. A fundamental research question brought to light by the emerging discipline involved identifying opportune times and approaches in introducing students to STEM, starting perhaps from the very early ages.
In 2007 I was invited to be a visiting research scholar and,
following that collaboration, in 2008 I was admitted to the
Engineering Education PhD program, and all these years I have
been working with Dr. Demetra Evangelou. Through my studies
at Purdue, and in my work with an advisor with a strong background
in early childhood development and education, I have focused
my research on identifying developmental engineering, early
STEM and programming thinking, and the optimum time, media and
ways to expose students in STEM concepts. At 2011 I acquired
my Doctoral Degree in Engineering Education defending a Thesis
entitled "Early Engineering: A developmentally appropriate
curriculum for young children"
For the following 6 years I worked as a postdoctoral associate and then as a STEM Culliculum and Pedagogy Expert within the MIT-SUTD Collaboration at the Massachusetts
Institute of Technology (MIT). For 7 years MIT has been involved in developing and
deploying the undergraduate curriculum, establishing a major
research centre and developing SUTD’s leadership team
and faculty. My main responsibilities within the Collaboration
resided in the areas of Curriculum Development Managment and
Accreditation, conduct of Pedagogy workshops to SUTD faculty
members, and conduct and manage Educational Research related to this project.
I am currently appointed as a research scientist working at the MIT - Open Learning. My position involves the development and assessment related to some of MIT’s national and international educational projects and collaborations. My research focuses on the efficacy of innovative learning mechanisms and pedagogical approaches used both at the K12 and higher education levels.
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